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PSM's Interchange 2018: "The Human Impacts of Counterfeits & Open Borders: Victims Have Their Say"

These slides accompanied the second panel at PSM's 2018 Interchange, which was held on June 7, 2018 in Washington, DC, at the National Press Club, and was moderated by PSM's Executive director, Shabbir Safdar.

Our panelists were Lisa Hicks, Jennifer Bryant Hodge and
Carrie Luther, all of whom have become advocates after losing their sons to counterfeit prescription pills.

The full video of the 3 and a half hour event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlrMw1pAlIU&feature=youtu.be.

This counterfeit problem in America has exploded in the last 24 months. The PSM research staff tracks every incident of counterfeit medicine that’s documented in public sources.

In April, we released 43 states and counting, a report that documents the current crisis of counterfeit pills made with fentanyl and show that it has reached 43 states. We have documented confirmed fatalities in 22 of those states.

We’re not counting deaths from prescription opioids or the deaths of people who mixed raw fentanyl with an illegal drug like heroin or cocaine. This are purely incidences of fake pills that look just like real Xanax or oxycodone. These fakes look identical to the real thing, but they were manufactured with illegally imported fentanyl. And they were manufactured badly, often with so much fentanyl that a single pill is fatal.

They have been documented in 43 states as of April 2018. We have confirmed deaths in 22 states, but one can only be sure that an overdose is caused by fentanyl by doing expensive toxicology we suspect there are more that aren’t publicly disclosed.

PSM's Interchange 2018: "The Human Impacts of Counterfeits & Open Borders: Victims Have Their Say"

2.
Carrie Luther of Aptos, CA
Carrie lost her son Tosh on October 27,
2015. Tosh took part of what he thought
was Xanax to help him get to sleep. The
pill was counterfeit and was made with
fatal amount of fentanyl.
2

4.
Lisa Hicks of Winder, GA
Lisa lost her son Joe on February 16,
2015 to a counterfeit oxycodone
made with fentanyl that a friend sold
to him.
This is a picture of Gabriel Joe
Patterson, the son that Joe never got
to meet.
4

6.
Jennifer Bryant Hodge of Cumming, GA
Jennifer lost her son Robbie on
December 4, 2016 to a counterfeit
Xanax taken several days before.
The pill contained a deadly amount of
midazolam, a stronger
benzodiazepine that is not found in
legitimate Xanax pills.
6